The sales development for manufacturers of printed circuit boards which has already continued positively for several months is also continuing to do so in January. This is according to the association of the printed circuit board industry and the ZVEI (Central Association of the German Electrical and Electronic Engineering Industry) trade association Electronic Components and Systems. Sales are up 5% on January of the previous year. According to information from the association the last time a comparable result was achieved was in January 2001.

New orders are reaching a level which was last achieved four years ago. The reasons for this successful development which continued during the whole of the second half of 2005 are to be partly attributed to the Re-Designs which are connected to the change-over to lead-free production. New product launches for the upcoming key trade fairs are also traditionally on the agenda in the first few months of the year. The companies benefiting from this are those specialising in prototypes and fast services.

In contrast, however, as a result of supply bottlenecks and price alignments the balance in the series production area has been tipped in favour of ”returnees” from Asia. With a value of 1.18 the book-to-bill ratio has achieved an exceptionally good result for the month of January. The last time this value was achieved in January was in the year 2000.

Downside: due to restructuring measures the number of employees in the sector has been reduced by two percent compared with December 2005.